The Oilers are sellers heading into Monday’s trade deadline.
This morning they moved Anders Nilsson, flipping him for a 5th round
pick and a goaltending prospect who should slot in behind of Eetu Laurikainen.
There are more players who will be shipped out of Edmonton, but it’s not just
players the Oilers could be selling. They can also have cap space to sell as
well.

In the last two games Edmonton sat the duo of Purcell and
Schultz, protecting them from sustaining a deal-breaking injury just before the
deadline. Before his eventual deal went through, they also made sure to leave
Nilsson in the backup role even though he was scheduled to start. Peter
Chiarelli is selling assets right now and Cap space is one that should also be
on the table.

As of Monday, the Oilers should have almost $13 million dollars
in available cap space. That gives them a lot of wiggle room to take on contracts
as well as retain salary on the ones they plan on moving out.

Edmonton’s available space isn’t extraordinary, for example
the Jets could add more than $50 million dollars in annual cap hits at the
deadline. That said, the Oilers are still in the upper half of the NHL with
regards to what’s available. It is more than enough to be used to their
benefit.

There are nine teams in the playoffs or right there in the
battle for them with less than four million in available Trade Deadline space.
Those teams are the following:

Blackhawks $655,579

Sharks $794,624

Capitals $1,480,462

Penguins $1,689,344

Red Wings $1,704,615

Lightning $1,745,626

Kings $2,107,514

Wild $2,749,410

Blues $3,113,711

***

Oilers $12,804,264

Two of those teams put someone on waivers today. Minnesota
put pending UFA Chris Porter and Washington put big ticket C Brooks Laich out
there. Laich has a $4.5 million dollar cap hit this season and the next even
though his offense dried up after 2012. It’s a lot of money to someone playing
10 minutes per night.

The Caps are hoping someone does them a favour and takes him
off their hands. Edmonton might not be the team willing to take him because
they don’t want the money on next year’s books, but someone in Edmonton’s shoes
should be able to take advantage of the position Washington is in.

Even if the Oilers don’t add dead-weight from other clubs
they have the ability to keep some of the dead weight associated with their own
expiring contracts. They can retain up to 50% of the remaining salary on
Schultz and Purcell. At this time of year the ability to do that could be the
difference between getting a B Prospect and settling for a pick.

Darren Dreger reports that the Kings are interested in both
Purcell and Schultz. That makes up $8.2 million in annual cap hit added to a
team that can rightly only add $2.1 million. They can’t afford to take on those
contracts unless Edmonton gets creative with salary and takes on a reasonably
expensive piece LA deems expendable. 

As the Pythons said in the clip at the top. Bring out your
dead, NHL. The Oilers should be willing to make a deal.

(Find salary info at NHLnumbers.com)